This is a link to photos as part of a three day two night trip into Linville gorge.
Dates of work: 4-19 through 4-21
Number of workers: 1 - Jim de Friess
Time spent : purely a guess - 20 hours? Including commute (7 on the 19th, 8 on the 20th, and 5 on the 21st)
Work done: Checked PinchIn and LGT south of PinchIn with the purpose in mind of clearing major obstacles I had heard were making hiking more difficult.
I cleared trees with Pulaski unless they could be stepped over, or were too big. All the majors obstacles to trail navigation are gone. There were places were multiple trees blocked the trail, and hikers had been finding their way around. On most occasions I was able to clear the original trail. Two exceptions where I clipped in the bypass were one, in an area with about a 3' drop where a slide had occurred (not recently). The bypass has a dropoff too, but being narrower its a little easier to deal with. The second one was in an area where water clearly pooled in the trail area, and hikers where bypassing around to the west. I left this one because it would be easier to negotiate in an active rainstorm.
My other tool was loppers and I was trying for width and height. 60% of the obstructions just needed to be tossed off the trail. In the areas where the trail tunnels through rhodo I left it a little lower than I wanted to in areas. People who hike should be awake. With the loppers I cut the smaller green and dead to clear the trail.
PinchIn had a tree across the lower part, but most work was done on LGT. I feel its around 2 miles from the PinchIn LGT intersection to the Dellinger Chimney and I am pleased to report the trail is much better.
LGT could use some shearing in places, and there was a poison ivy vine bigger than my leg- which I didn't mess with. But I had no shears. PinchIn needs some shearing too. Both are in good shape.
On a personal note I did some cooking and had a great time.
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